Saturday, July 27, 2013

Reading a Novel that Stars Your Hometown

Yesterday,
I reviewed Litany
of Secrets by Luke
Davis – the first in what I hope is a long line of mystery stories
featuring Cameron Ballack, a disabled police detective. What I didn’t mention
in the review, likely because it would have detracted from what I was describing,
is how familiar I am with the geography of the novel.

The
story is set in the town of Defiance,
Missouri, which is about a 40-minute drive from where I live in St. Louis.
Defiance is the area Daniel Boone settled in a couple of centuries ago, and it
sits near the Missouri River, right on Highway 94, a windy road through the
state’s wine country. Every time we go to Augusta (a few miles to the west)
to visit the winery there, we drive right through Defiance.

The
Katy Trail runs right through
Defiance as well, and I’ve biked the trail a number of times. In fact, it was on
the Katy Trail where I had my crash in 2009 (four broken ribs and a partially
collapsed lung), and right on the wooden bridge crossing the Femme Osage Creek,
which is the locale of one of the scenes in the book.

The
headquarters the police work out of in the story is “east of the high school
and a minor league baseball stadium” in O’Fallon,
Missouri. The baseball stadium in question is the T.R. Hughes Stadium, and my
oldest son worked there for the minor
baseball team after graduating from college. One of the character’s parents
lives in Chesterfield, a St. Louis
suburb, and the character herself graduated from Parkway West High School.

The
references to highways in the book – Highway 94 in St. Charles, Interstates 70,
64 and 270 – are all real roads. Interstate 70 connects St. Louis and Kansas
City; Interstate 64 is the main highway through the St. Louis region; and 270
is the “belt” around St. Louis County.

One
scene has the detectives talking to a professor at Fitz’s restaurant in University City,
the area we call the Loop. Fitz’s is a real place, and something of a St. Louis
icon (think burgers, fries, root beer, and malts). And I got hungry reading the
references to Ted Drewes
Frozen Custard stand in the city of St. Louis.

Litany of Secrets is filled with
St. Louis references, but that won’t stop non-St. Louisans from enjoying it. It’s
a great story. A bonus for me was to read about places I’m so familiar with.

It's great fun to read about your local area in a novel. I'm enjoying reading the installments of The Presidents Club by FC Etier; not only is it exciting and intriguing, but the Atlanta/Marietta landmarks are such fun to identify with.Thanks for a great book review, Glynn!

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Professional writer exploring faith and culture, life and work; happily married to Janet, the love of my life; father of two grown sons. Award-winning speechwriter and communication consultant. I am also a contributing editor for The High Calling and for TweetSpeak Poetry. I am also the author of the novels "Dancing Priest" and "A Light Shining," and the non-fiction book "Poetry at Work."